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St. Joseph's heads into Lent with feast March 4

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - St. Joseph's Catholic Church is gearing up for the busiest day of the year at the church-Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, which is 46 days before Easter Sunday-the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On March 5, priests will bless ashes, sprinkle them with holy water and use them to make the sign of the cross on parishioners' foreheads, according to an article by Mark Hart of Life Teen.

"The distribution of ashes reminds us of our own mortality and calls us to repentance," Hart said in his article.

Father Kilian McCaffrey of St. Joseph's said the tradition goes back at least 3,000 years.

"If somebody had to repent, particularly a king or a public person, they would wear a sack cloth and ashes instead of their usual finery," he said. "Sack cloth is a very coarse material so it's very penitential. It's a time for examining our spiritual lives and turning back to God."

St. Joseph's festivities begin with mass and a feast on March 4, which is Mardi Gras.

"Because you're fasting for 40 days that is literally Fat Tuesday in French," McCaffrey said.

Tuesday's mass starts at 5 p.m. and the feast starts at 6 p.m.

Another important tradition will also take place on that evening.

"People will bring their palms from Palm Sunday last year, the beginning of Holy Week, and those palms will be burned on Mardi Gras after the mass," McCaffrey said. "So that's where we get the ashes from. You can also buy them through a catalog but I think (this is) much more personal."

The next day, March 5, is Ash Wednesday. An ashes service will take place at St. Joseph's at 7 a.m.

That evening St. Joseph's will put on an Ash Wednesday mass at 7 p.m. McCaffrey will also lead mass on that day at noon in Seligman and at 5 p.m. in Ash Fork.

Church staff is expecting a large turnout for the holiday.

"We'll see more people on Ash Wednesday than we'll see any other day-Christmas, Easter. They come out of the woodwork on Ash Wednesday," McCaffrey said. "It's a very special day."

St. Joseph's Catholic Church is at 900 W. Grant Ave. More information is available at (928) 635-2430.


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